How do you know when you’re having a midlife crisis? Maybe it’s when you can’t remember exactly where your wife works - or whether she works at all. Or when your children have a more active sex life than you do. Or maybe it’s when you start to hear the unspoken thoughts inside other people’s heads.

Hugh Laurie (House) stars as Paul Slippery, an anxiety-ridden British doctor suffering from all those symptoms and more. His wife (Anna Chancellor, Four Weddings and a Funeral) has embarked on a new career and perhaps an extramarital affair or two. His three oversexed sons mock him without mercy. And at work he’s tangled in red tape and tormented by a flaky colleague.

Guest stars include Stephen Fry, Laurie’s partner-in-comedy from shows such as A Bit of Fry and Laurie, Jeeves and Wooster, and Blackadder. With its delightful cast and zany repartee, Fortysomething turns the fears and foibles of middle age into high comedy of the kookiest kind.